Brown quietly leads swimmen to success, Big Ten title

By ANTHONY MILLER
Collegian Staff Writer

Lost in the excitement of the Penn State men's swimming and diving team winning the conference title Feb. 28 at Indiana was Peter Brown being named Big Ten Swimming Coach of the Year.

And he wouldn't have had it any other way.

The unassuming coach escalated the team's performance and downplayed his role in the victory.

"The coaching award, it's one of those things that you know you've got some respect from your peers in the conference. And at the same time, you also know that there's nine other coaches in the conference who are doing a darn good job that were just as qualified," Brown said. "I was just fortunate to be coaching such a good group of guys and having the opportunity."

Brown, who has accumulated a 110-38 record over 15 years at Penn State, led the 1998-99 Nittany Lions to a season of firsts. The team was the first in school history to finish the regular season with a 10-1 record and the championship also marked the first in school history.

Winning the championship this season was something that seemed out of reach to many of the younger swimmers.

Bob Molettiere, the sole individual winner for Penn State at Big Tens, said, "It was incredible. I had never thought of it. We talked about it a little at the beginning of the year, but we'd be like, 'Our team's getting pretty good. Maybe by the time we're seniors we could maybe win Big Tens or something like that.' It was crazy. We couldn't believe what happened."

After climbing from a seventh-place conference finish in 1997 to third in 1998 and finally to No. 1 in 1999, Brown has come to be held in high esteem by the swimmers. Without his guidance and coaching expertise, the Lions said they likely would not have reached the apex of success.

"The whole team was expecting it. The way we made such a climb from the bottom to the top. It was total happiness to see him finally get what he deserved," freestyle swimmer Paul Monyok said.

The usually calm and composed coach showed emotions Lions fans and swimmers alike had never seen. He has always been the rock-solid anchor that keeps wins and losses in perspective, but at times during the championships his excitement for his team's accomplishments was unleashed.

"It was funny," Molettiere said. "We had videos of the meet, and you could see races and you could see our bench, and then you'd see him just standing in the bleachers, just folding his hands, just being calm and everything, just being like, 'All right, good race, good race.'

"But then there were some races where he just went crazy. Everyone was like, 'Dude, he went nuts during that race.' It was funny, and then when he went up to get the award, he was like, 'Thank you, thank you.' And everyone was just so crazy. It was awesome, it was so funny."

Everything Brown does at Penn State is for his swimmers. They are the most important people in the program, and Brown said he should not be the focus of the accolades bestowed on them.

Before taking over for Lou MacNeil, Brown was the assistant coach of the men's and women's swimming teams and diving team at Delaware. From there, he was hired as the head coach at Old Dominion, where he was the 1983-84 Virginia Swim Coaches Association Coach of the Year.

He led the Lions to three consecutive Atlantic 10 Championships spanning from 1984-87 and helped Penn State through its early struggles in the Big Ten. Then he put the team on the conference map last season as the Lions cracked the top three for the first time.

In addition to coaching the swimming team, he is also currently an instructor in the College of Health and Human Development.

During his tenure at Penn State, Brown has coached nine Academic All-Americans and eight of his teams have achieved Team Academic All-America status.

"We've had guys who have had a lot of smarts and have been Academic All-Americans, and we've had some other guys that maybe weren't quite as gifted academically on paper, but they've done just as well," Brown said. "It's nice to see guys really excel in the classroom and grow that way."

Brown said his coaching style is really no different from anyone else's, but it is obvious he knows how to get the most out of each swimmer.

"He's like a blueprint for us. He lets us know what we need to do to get better," freestyle swimmer Steve Hodgins said. "We couldn't have done it without Pete."

And the coach couldn't have done it without his swimmers.